Top 50 CIO movements in 2018

There were lots of action on CIO's changing companies and industries. Here is a list of top 50 selected movements...

CIO stands for Career Is Over—that is how the old quip went. Once you become CIO of a fairly large organization, you are stuck there for long. The joke was not entirely off-the-mark. Many Indian CIOs continued (not always ‘stuck’) for long in the same organization. The more adventurous of the lot changed jobs—but by and large stuck to same or allied industries. So, you had telecom CIOs or manufacturing CIOs or pharma CIOs. That started changing in 2016 when a significant number of CIOs changed the job they held for more than five-six years, sometimes even longer. It accelerated in 2017.

In 2018, this trend—of CIOs changing their jobs in large numbers to join newer companies, newer industries—got further diffused across Indian industry. A large number of CIOs changed their jobs in 2018.

A few retired too. Some such luminaries who bid adieu to corporate CIO positions include K K Choudhary, an ex-defence personnel, who served as CIO and CISO at Lanco; Praksh Paranjpe of Idea Cellular; Pratap Gharge who retired as the Executive President & CIO of Bajaj Electricals after a long and illustrious innings at the company and Rupinder Goel of Tata Communication, another industry veteran.

We have drawn a list of top 50 CIO movements. These ‘movers’ could mean joining a new company or taking a significantly different and bigger responsibility within the same company. Simple designation changes with marginal tweaks in job descriptions are not part of the list. Since the focus is on CIOs, the list is presented alphabetically on CIO names and not company names or according to date/month which looks pretty mechanical. However, you will find their new designation, new company, immediate past designation, immediate past company and month of change in most cases.

Top 50 Movements

Ajay Vij took over as CIO Fortis Healthcare in October 2018. He was earlier handling Supply chain management in the same company.

Amit Jaokar took over as Head of Technology at Motilal Oswal Financial Services in December. He was earlier CTO, Choice International

Amitabh Mishra joined as president and Chief Technology Officer at Emcure Pharmaceuticals in July 2018. He was earlier with Vedanta Resources Ltd in its Sterlite Copper Division as its Chief Digital Officer.

Anjani Kumar took over a regional role as he joined as CIO, AMI (Africa, Middle East and India) for Nissan Motor Corporation in August. He was Senior VP and Global Chief Digital Officer of Collabera before that.

Annapurna Viswanathan joined as Head of Digital at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages in October. Immediately prior to this, she was IT Transformation Leader at GE Digital.

Anupam Singh took over as Head IT Jakson Group in April. He was earlier with Ericsson.

Asfar Khan was appointed as Director - Information Technology, South Asia of Kellogg Company in July. He served as CTO of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages immediately prior to this assignment.

Ashish Bajaj joined as Chief Technology Officer at DSP Mutual Fund in June. He was CTO at InstaRem, a Singapore-headquartered fintech.

Ashwin Prajapati joined Symphony Ltd as Group CIO in January 2018. He was a delivery director with KPIT Cummins Infosystems.

Bhavesh Lakhani joined SBI Mutual Funds as Senior Vice President and Head IT in May. He was the CTO of DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund before that.

Bhavin Purohit joined as the CTO of Tata Capital in June. He was CIO and Group IT Head of Welspun Group, immediately prior to that.

Biswabrata Chakravorty joined as the Chief Technology Officer of IndusInd Bank in February. He was earlier with Cigna TTK Health Insurance Company

Chandresh Dedhia took over as Head of IT, Ascent Health & Wellness in January 2018 after a long seven-plus years term with Fermenta Biotech.

Chinmay Bhatia joined as Head IT at Reliance Nippon Life Insurance in November. Immediately prior to that, he was SVP and Head Business Applications with Liberty General Insurance.

CR Srinivasan was appointed as the Chief Digital Officer by Tata Communications in January 2018. He headed global cloud and security services business at the company. He would be responsible for technology, which was being handled by CIO Rupinder Goel, who retired.

Darshan Appayanna joined as Head Digital and Technology, Trent Hypermarket – Star Bazaar, a Tata & Tesco Enterprise in October. He was Chief Information & Knowledge Officer at Happest Minds prior to this.

Devendra Kumar Punia, an academician-turned-entrepreneuer-turned-corporate honcho, took over as CIO of Paras healthcare in July. He was the partner in two startups ProjectforSchool and Wunderkind.

Ekhlaque Bari was appointed as the Executive Vice President and CTO of Fullerton India in September 2018. He was earlier with Max Life Insurance for more than four years, immediately prior to this assignment.

Gautam Dutta joined as Chief Information & Technology Officer at Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance in November. He was VP, Technology with ICICI Lombard GIC

Gupta Boda Head joined as IT & Digital of Brigade Group in April. He was Chief Technology Advisor to National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) before that. He also served as CISO of GMR Group for a long time.

Harvinder Singh Banga was appointed as Chief Technology Officer at Samvardhana Motherson Group in July. He was Head of Business Application at GWC immediately prior to this appointment.

Madhavi Kanumoory took over as the CIO of Healthcare Global (HCG) in August. She was with GE Healthcare in various capacities for more than five years prior to this assignment.

Mani Mulki joined as the Chief Information Officer at Tata Capital in June. Prior to that, he was with IFFCO based at UAE. He has also worked with ICICI Bank

Maninder Karthik took over as Group CIO, Bottling Investment Group, The Coca-Cola Company in September. She was in Whirlpool Corporation for close to 8 years, in various positions, including CIO – Asia.

Manoj Kumar joined as Head IT at APL Apolo Group (Apollo Pipes) in June. He was earlier heading IT function at Jakson Group.

Meheriar Patel joined Jeena & Company as Group CIO in April. He was CIO of AGC Networks immediately prior to that. He has also served in Sun Pharma.

Mohit Mendiratta joined as CIO V2 Retail in March. He was earlier with Havells India as General Manager IT.

Nilesh Mhatre joined Bank of America India as its CIO in December. He was earlier with HSBC as its regional CIO for India.

Niranjan Balivade joined as Group CIO Eduspark Group in February. He was earlier with CEAT.

Pavan Tsunduru took over as CIO Great Eastern Shipping in December. He was earlier with Adani Ports and SEZ.

Priyabrata Sarangi joined as CIO, Eastman Auto and Power (Automotive division) in March. Before that, he served as the CIO of Exide Industries

Puneet Kaur Kohli joined as CTO and CIO Manappuram Finance in January 2018 after spending more than four years as CIO of Bajaj Capital.

Rajesh Panchal, after a close to two-decade old stint at UPL, joined as CIO of Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection in July.

Rajnish Sinha, who served as the Chief Digital Officer of Bajaj Electricals took over as the CIO of the company as well in August. This was following the retirement of Pratap Gharge.

Sandesh Govalkar joined as CIO and VP, ECL Finance in August. He was earlier Head of IT at Mirae Asset Capital Markets.

Sandip Kothari assumed the responsibility of CIO at Wonderchef Home Appliances. He has worked mostly with consumer and retail brands like Baggit, Travel Food Services, The Bombay Store etc

Sanjay Karnatak joined as the Chief Technology & Digital Officer at Star Union Dai-ich Life Insurance company in September. He was earlier with Aditya Birla Health Insurance.

Sanjay Kotha joined Ahmedabad-based conglomerate Adani Group as Joint President & Group CIO in January 2018. Immediately prior to that, he was serving as CIO & SVP at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages for close to five years.

Sanjay Verma joined as CIO of Somany Ceramics in November. He was earlier with JK Lakshmi Cements.

Sankarson Banerjee joined RBL Bank as the CIO in October. Before that, he was with National Stock Exchange as CTO – Projects.

Satya Saibaba Vakkalanka joined as Vice President IT and CIO at JMC Projects in October. He came from Turner Project Management India/Turner International where he served as Director – IS & Head of IT.

Shantanu Chatterjee took over as the Global Head Digital IT at UPL in April. He was with Verizon Wireless in the United States for a long time.

Shrinath Bolloju was appointed as Managing Director, Operations & Technology and Head, Technology, South A by Citi in November. He was earlier COO at RBL Bank.

Shuvankar Pramanick joined as the CIO of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital at New Delhi in January. He was earlier Group CIO at Paras Healthcare

Subir Mookherji took over as Group CIO and Digital Business Leader at Solar Industries India in August. He was Vice President (IT) and head of Group IT CoE at RPG Enterprise

Sudip Banerjee joined as Group CTO at Reliance Capital in March 2018. He moved from Reliance General Insurance where he had spent more than 10 years.

UC Singh joined as CIO, CEAT Ltd in March 2018. He left a more than seven-year stint with Greaves Cotton Ltd.

Veneeth Purushotaman joined as Group CIO at Aster DM Healthcare in September. He was CIO Fortis Healthcare before that.

Vipul Anand joined Hindware as SVP IT in May. He had a more than four years-stint with Jindal Steel & Power before that.

Yoginder Grewal joined Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages as its CTO in July. He was with Sophie Paris in Indonesia.